Friends -

Our campaign just became the first-ever statewide campaign in Massachusetts to unionize.

Our campaign is powered by workers, and our campaign’s values are union values. This agreement is a reflection of our commitment to upholding these values every day.

I am inspired by the labor movement. It is my pride and my duty to fight for and alongside unions.

My father was a union leader. He taught us growing up that the whole reason a middle class even exists in this country is that we had unions.

For centuries, unions in the United States have fought to secure key protections for workers. The legacy of our country’s very first union, The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, lived on through the 1912 Bread and Roses Strike, one of the earliest developments in workers’ rights here in Massachusetts. It lived on through my father, a milkman who emphasized to me the importance of his union membership. I’m proud that it’s living on today within this very campaign.

I take the endorsements our campaign has received from SEIU 32BJ, SEIU 888, AFSCME, UNITE HERE Local 26, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, and the Association of Professional Flight Attendants seriously. I know that they’re more than just a stamp of approval for the progress we’ve made so far — they’re also a challenge for our campaign to continue to support workers everywhere.

This new agreement is an important step in making sure that we run a campaign that makes you proud.

As always, thank you for being a part of this movement.

- Ed Markey